I am Dedicated, if nothing else!

Even though our tiny little 1-A school doesn't have a football team, we do have a pretty good basketball team. One year, the girls are better than the boys, and another year, vice versa. I don't know what the tilt is this year, but the season hasn't really gotten underway, as the girls have only had one game, and the boys haven't even had one, yet. Nonetheless, our Homecoming is scheduled for tomorrow night, as our girls play one team, and our boys play a scrimmage against another team. Sounds like bad planning to me... but that's neither here nor there.

As in most high schools, the week leading up to Homecoming is Spirit week, with each day having a different theme. Monday was Overalls Day, because we're going to "Haul off the Lions" (or whatever their mascot is.) Tuesday was Wear All White Day, for "Keeping your Eyes on the Lions" (or something dumb like that.) Wednesday was Mismatched Day, and today was Twinkie Day (Match another person). Tomorrow is Spirit day, where we wear red and black to support the Pirates. I didn't know about Monday, so I didn't wear my overalls, even though I would have, since they are so comfortable. I wasn't about to look like a marshmellow and wear all white on Tuesday, so I skipped that day, too. So, I knew I had to do something good for Mismatch Day. I wore some pants and a shirt that had no business even being worn in the same week, let alone together on the same day. I also wore some funky socks with my tennis shoes, and some funky earrings. The other thing I did was wear my hair all jacked up in some lopsided ponytails on weird spots on my head. One kid didn't think they were weird enough, so he fixed them. Then he told me that I needed to wear it like that all the time.
After I was done laughing, he told me that if I wore my hair like that for a week, he would pass my Algebra class for the rest of the year. HOW COULD I RESIST?
This student should be a senior, but he is still a sophomore because he never gets enough credits a year to go on to the next grade level. He is completely capable of passing, but he is just LAZY and doesn't want to do enough work to pass. So, we made a deal. I wear my hair like a person without a mirror and vertigo for five school days, and he'll do all of his work and pass Algebra for the rest of the school year.
The catch?
If I don't hold up my end, in these five designated school days, he gets a free 100 as a test grade, which I don't give lightly.
If he doesn't hold up his end, all year long, then I get possession of his favorite hat, which I have never EVER seen out of his sight.
Hmmmm.... who gets the better deal here?
People around school are already looking at me, asking me if I forgot that yesterday was Mismatch day. I just keep saying, "No. I know. I'm just dedicated to doing ANYTHING it takes to help a student pass."
My hope is that once kids figure out what I'm doing, they'll know that I'm not the giant ogre that some of them think I am, and that they will work a little harder to earn the grades that I know they could get, as long as they are willing to put in a little effort.

God celebrates seasons, too!

Today while I was driving to town to run the errands that I had put off for two weeks, God showed me that He celebrates seasons, too! He made me feel like I was getting my own personal show of His emotions, and that Fall is his favorite season.
I know this because as I was driving down the road, God showered me with his version of confetti... beautifully different colored leaves!
So, share with God in His personal joy, and enjoy the change in the weather!

Farm Life- But not on a Farm

I am used to my dogs barking at things in the middle of the night. I think they are upholding some kind of guard-dog rules or something, because anything that moves near my house after it's dark is fair game for chase. I like to tell my students that they bark AND bite strangers after dark, even though I know they don't, because I would rather not have student visitors after dark.
This morning, however, we were awoken at 3 AM by my dogs incessant, worried, barking. If they had been using words, I would have woken up to phrases such as, "Get away from my house! You don't belong here! Get away from my food! I'm gonna bite you! Listen to me, sucker, I'm only gonna warn you once!"

Needless to say, I woke up a little worried. My worry was compounded when I heard loud thuds in between barks. My husband woke up to the barking, too, and immediately went for his gun, while I went to the window to see what the fuss was all about. When I looked outside, I saw a huge shadow, and I had to look again.

It was our neighbor's horses. They had busted the fence next to our house and had come to eat our grass instead of their pasture grass. The biggest problem was that only three of the five horses had gotten out, so the two that were still behind the fence were feeling jipped. So, the two inside and the three outside the fence raced each other up and down the length of the fence on one side of our house, one taunting the other.

Knowing that these horses were very valuable to my neighbor, I had to call him and wake him up and tell him that his horses were in my front yard. Luckily, without any other major incident, all three horses were returned back home, and put away with the other two into the barn.

Now, my yard has been aerated in horseshoe patterns, and there is a little bit of extra fertilizer in my grass. I just hope that this isn't an occurence that happens very often. My neighbor and I are great neighbors. He stays at his house and we stay at ours. We like living out in the middle of nowhere. I just hope he forgives me for waking him up so early.

Twenty-five...plus two

I think that birthdays make you worse than the year before. My body isn't the same as it was a year ago, my mind isn't the same, and my attitude isn't the same. So, I have decided to do like everyone else does. I am going to just count one birthday from now on. And then celebrate the anniversary of it every year after that. So, I choose to celebrate the anniversary of my twenty-fifth birthday.

Last night I decided to take Micheal into downtown, so that we could go to Scare on the Square. Jonathan was supposed to get off work at six, which was coincidentally the same time the fun started. My only problem was that I didn't plan on going to this event, nor have I planned on taking a seventeen-month old trick-or-treating, so I didn't get him a costume this year. We had a little policeman last year, and this year, he still doesn't understand the idea of dressing up, so I decided to save myself the money on a costume. Luckily, we have a wonderful grandma who knows that his favorite character is Elmo, so she bought him a windsuit covered with Elmo's face. So, we wore that downtown, and it was just as good as any other $35 Elmo costume we might have bought.

The part that wasn't good was the stupid-ness called Scare on the Square. There were multitudes of people there, of varying ages, with varying degrees of appropriateness in costume choices. Jonathan called and had to work an extra two hours, my sister was out with her friends, and my other friends had their own family and a Halloween party to attend (as New Orleans looters!) So, Micheal and I decided to go anyway. Glad we did, so now I know that we really don't have to go again. It was a bunch of "booths" with candy-crazed midgets pushing their way to the front, trying to get to the candy that each group was passing out. Needless to say, I left my little Elmo in his stroller, and we didn't push our way through to get any candy that he couldn't eat. We did, however, get a balloon, the only thing he really wanted anyway. :)
So, now I know that next year, unless he begs, we don't need to go. Maybe when he's old enough to walk around without acting like a fool. But by the way others there were acting, that may be longer than a year.

Love Is...

Having an ice-free windshield when it is frigidly cold outside... because he started your car and defrosted it before he left for work.
Isn't that nice!?!